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Dear visitors

Have you ever been inside an artist’s studio or watched a work of art being made? Here at the Kunsthaus we’re offering you the – possibly unique – opportunity to share in the process that leads to a space-enveloping artwork. We’ve invited the Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas (b. 1968) to transform the exhibition gallery into a studio measuring more than a thousand square metres. In it, over a five-week period, a wholly new creation will be taking shape, accompanied by events, film screenings, workshops and concerts with local bands, and complemented by some of the artist’s earlier works. At the end of the presentation an entire, large-scale installation will be complete.

This new exhibition format is more than an experiment: it’s a step towards re-imagining the museum as institution, making it a place of living exchange with contemporary art and continual cooperation. Abraham Cruzvillegas’s works are the product of close interaction between his own lived experience and social and political circumstances, sensibilities and issues. He refuses to remain aloof, choosing instead to get straight to the point. This grand ‘making of’ is also a sensory spectacle – one that we are looking forward to as much as you.

After five short weeks in the company of Abraham Cruzvillegas we’ll be making space for our next major project. ‘Fashion Drive’ looks at extreme manifestations of fashion in the visual arts from the late Middle Ages (!) to the present day. It wouldn’t be complete without a suitably festive gathering, so we’re laying on a fashion ball that promises to be the zaniest event of the season. Advance sales open in February. Meanwhile in our collection we’ve a fascinating display comprising rarely exhibited works of Swiss and international modernism, covering the entire spectrum of representational art from objective reproduction to surreal alienation. There are some big names but also some real surprises.

So my advice to you is: act now to make sure you don’t miss anything. And remember: here at Heimplatz, a new piece of the New Kunsthaus is being revealed every day! You and your friends are invited to visit the building site and view the interior of the extension on our open day.